We hiked, drank chianti, and saw the Pope.

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\161HOLA AMIGOS!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING WEEKEND AND HOLA FROM SOUTH AMERICA! WE ARE SORRY THAT IT HAS BEEN AWHILE SINCE OUR LAST TRIP JOURNAL UPDATE. THE ENTRY BELOW IS ABOUT OUR ADVENTURES IN ITALY. TO READ OUR OTHER TRIP JOURNAL ENTRIES, CLICK ON THE 'VIEW ALL AUTHOR ENTRIES' BUTTON ABOVE. YOU CAN READ ABOUT THE BEGINNING OF OUR TRIP IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY, OR READ THE ENTRIES AFTER ITALY: GREECE, TURKEY, EASTERN EUROPE, AND RUSSIA. WE APOLOGIZE THAT EACH ENTRY IS SO LONG (PROBABLY 5-10 MINUTES EACH TO READ), BUT WE HAVE ENJOYED MANY FUN TIMES AND HAVE LOTS OF GOOD STORIES TO SHARE. RUSSIA'S ENTRY IS PARTICULARY JUICY! THERE ARE ALSO TWO PHOTOS TO CHECK OUT -- IN THE ITALY AND AFRICA ENTRIES. WE HOPE THAT YOU ENJOY READING OUR JOURNAL AND WE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU AT KNMCDONALD2002@YAHOO.COM.

WE HOPE THAT YOU ARE ALL ENJOYING THE THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY. WE WENT TO AN AMERICAN RESTAURANT FOR THANKSGIVING DINNER IN SANTIAGO!

LOTS OF LOVE,

KATHY AND NEIL

HERE IS ITALY...

After an overnight in Zurich, we landed in Nice, France, to begin our 10-day drive from the Mediterranean Sea to Rome. We picked up our rental car (the exact same model of mini-Mercedes as we had driven in France amazingly) and drove along the Mediterranean to the town of Nice. Nice is a medium-sized town with a long beach buzzing with cafes and passers-by. In only 1 1/2 hours drive you can be skiing in the winter. Both sea and ski close by...and good French food, wine, and coffee. Paradise. We'd love to come back and rent an apartment for a while.

We spent the night in Nice and the following day drove along the coast to Italy. The sky was a clear blue and the view from the cliff towns looking down at the sea was simply stunning. It's no wonder why stars like Bono and Tina Turner have villas in towns like Eze and Ville Franc Sur La Mer. The view from these cute little villages truly takes your breath away. We even made a quick stop in the Country of Monaco to see the famous Monte Carlo Casino. This place is SO RICH that they even charge you 10 Euros just to walk in! It was easy to imagine James Bond (or perhaps Austin Powers), dressed in a tux, ordering martinis at the craps table. The views are amazing from this oasis and the place is spotless. It's not hard to figure out why so many of the super rich keep yachts and villas in Monaco. Oh, and did I mention that there are NO income taxes in Monaco! They make so much money from the casino and fancy shops that income taxes aren't necessary. Wow!

We continued along the shore and stopped for lunch on the beach in Menton, France, a little village on the Italian border. We sat on the rocky beach enjoying one of our typical European picnics -- fresh, crusty bread; smooth and creamy and smelly French cheese; crunchy apples; and good, red wine (only $6)! Viva La France! We jumped in the water, starred a bit at the topless French bathers (mostly old women), and headed to Italy.

We crossed the boarder into Italy, and.... no one blinked. If you haven't been to Europe recently, it is so much easier to travel now than it used to be. No waits at the boarder, no money changing, and 1 Euro equals about $1 US. Really couldn't be easier. If you have a tri-band mobile phone, it will work all over Europe and Africa on the GSM system. You just have to change the band when you land and ...voila, the phone works! If you are going to one country for a couple of weeks, we suggest renting a local phone or buy a pre-paid, local SIM card to swap out from your US phone. A SIM card is the little chip in the phone that identifies the local phone number. We bought local SIM cards in places where we were going to be for a while, like France, Spain, and Italy. Our local calls were super cheap (about $.04 per minute) and long distance to the US was about $.20 per minute. Yes, you can also buy an international phone cards and get even cheaper rates to the US, but you can't beat the utility of a mobile phone when you're on the road or on the go. If you want more thoughts on using a cell phone internationally, please don't hesitate to contact us. We digress...back to Italy.

We spent a night on the Italian Riviera in a cute town called Santa Margarita Ligure, which is a short boat ride away from the famously, chi chi Portofino. The next day we took the boat ride to Portofino and were indeed blown away by the view. Can you imagine a Cartier, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Prada all in one small seaside village? I guess those people on the gigantic, private yachts have to shop somewhere. With all that, Portofino somehow manages to maintain its sense of authentic, Italian charm and picturesque beauty. We hiked to the top of the hill, where an old castle looks over the city. The view was absolutely amazing and made it worth the effort. We hiked back down to the main piazza and rewarded ourselves by indulging in some delicious foccacia bread with olives and sun-dried tomatoes. As we ate our picnic lunch, we people-watched and soaking up the seaside atmosphere -- and repelled the rain with our umbrella. Oh, well. Guess you can't have a great view and great weather at the same time.

We picked up our car and went to the AutoStrada (a very fast and expensive super highway). Along the way, we passed numerous small, quaint villages where every family seemed to have their own vineyard of wine and olive grove, and every village their own fabulous 14th century castle and cathedral. Too bad we didn't have time to stop at them all.

We got off the highway and made our way down a steep, winding, narrow cliff road to the town of Vernazza -- town number 4 of the 'Cinque Terre.' It seems that these five beautiful cliff towns (now a National Park) have indeed been discovered. They are especially crowded by devotes of Rick Steve's 'Europe Through the Back Door.' We met more than a few crunchy, hiker Northwest types. The idea is to stay in one of these cute towns in a room in someone's home up a winding old alley (we did) and to spend your day hiking from town to town or taking the train or the bus if you get too tired. The 'hikes' are all rated 'easy' by the National Park Service. If you hike from 1-5, it's a 14 km 'walk.' We took a 2-minute train ride to town #1, Riomaggiore, and hiked along the famous (and easy) 'Via Del Amore' to town #2, Manarola. We trekked on an arrived in town #3, Corniglia for a quick lunch. So far, so good. The views along the cliffs were truly stunning the weather was perfect for hiking -- 75-80 degrees, perfect blue sky, and no wind or humidity. Each town along the Cinque Terre route seems to rise up in the air like a fairly tale story. The cliffside towns sit along the coast and offer some of the most beautiful scenery we have ever seen. The hike from towns 1 -3 is easy for almost every one. The hike from town #3 (Corniglia) to #4 (Vernazza) is a bit more difficult. Many Americans we had met earlier seemed to have disappeared to the train or bus. The path was steep, rocky and uneven, without any kind of rail. I can't imagine doing it in the rain when the smooth rocks are slippery. Even the 'go-gettum German and Swiss hikers we saw might have said no to hiking between #3 and #4 in the rain. We made the hike in about 2 1/2 hours -- just like the guidebook said. The photo attached to the entry (below) is how we looked at the end of the trek. Tired and happy.

After absorbing Italy's beautiful nature areas, we spent the next few days turbo sightseeing in Tuscany. We went to Pisa to see the leaning tower, amazing cathedral, and basilica en route to Florence. For many people, Florence is their favorite European city. We had both been there in college and had a great time re-visiting the many famous sites, including the Duomo (you MUST hike the stairs to the top), the Uffizi Gallery (Michelangelo, Botticelli, Leonardo Da Vinci, etc.), Michelangelo's 'David' statue, the Medici Chapels, and the churches of Santa Maria Novella (the Dominicans), Santa Croce (famous people buried there include Michelangelo, Dante, Machiavelli, and Galileo to name a few!). Another must is the view of the city from Piazza Michelangelo, which offers a very different view in the day and at night. We shopped a bit in the San Lorenzo market and at the Furla store where bags are almost 50% of the cost in the US. If you go to Florence, have a meal at Il Latini -- a great family-style place near the Ponte Vecchio bridge that serves up a traditionally 8-9-course meal (who's counting?) Italian meal all for under $30 a head including wine (though they present neither a menu, nor a written bill)!

Next stop was the wineries along the 'Chianti Road' in Tuscany. Our base was an old farmhouse in Greve-in-Chianti. We could have visited 2 dozen wineries (most housed in old castles), but had time only for a half dozen. Our favorites were Vinmaggio and Verazzano (yes, related to the bridge in New York). Fall must be one of the best times to visit Tuscany. The leaves on the grape vines were all that beautiful golden shade and the rolling hills are very green. We sampled many red wines (only called 'Chianti Classico' if grown here), the local Vin Santo (a delicious desert wine dipped in biscotti), and olio (olive oil). Spent a day exploring the cute village of Siena and wished that we had more time to see others.

En route to Rome, we stopped in Pienza, a town that is famous for its delicious pecorino cheese (try buying Pecorino di Pienza next time you can instead of Pecorino di Romano). It is a quintessential Italian village and was the backdrop for 'The English Patient' and the most recent 'Romeo and Juliet' films. We also stopped to see the walled, fortress city of Orvieto, which has a great cathedral.

In Rome, we spent an entire day seeing St. Peter's and the Vatican Museum. The Sistine Chapel was renovated in 1999 and looks truly glorious. Hard to believe that Michelangelo painted the ceiling as a young man and 'The Last Judgment' as an old man. Apparently, he didn't even like to paint and considered himself more of a sculptor. We also had the chance to see and hear Pope John Paul II give his weekly Wednesday Papal Audience in St. Peter's Square. We were about 50 yards from the Pope and got a good view. He personally delivers welcome remarks each week in Polish, Italian, English, French, German, and Spanish to the 5,000 lucky people with tickets, which are free and handled out earlier in the week. We were fortunate to be there on the day of the Pope's 25th Anniversary of his Papacy. In his remarks, he proclaimed this year the 'Year of the Rosary' -- an historic occasion even if you're not Catholic. After seeing and hearing the Pope, we truly felt that our big trip had been blessed.

We spent our second day in Rome seeing the famous Roman Forum and Colosseum. Had a fabulous dinner at Pizzeria Baffetto near Piazza Navona (supposedly the best pizza in Rome), saw the Pantheon, threw a coin in at the Trevi Fountain, and hung out in the heart of Old Rome at the Spanish Steps.

After a long 2 weeks in Italy, we were finally, actually tired of pasta and ready to see family in Greece. Though there's much more to see, we learned what a diverse country Italy is. From the coast, to the hills, to the great cities, there is so much to enjoy. We definitely want to come back. Ciao, Italy!